The 2010 Dodge Challenger is One Hot Rod Street Machine!

The 2010 Dodge Challenger gives a pretty amazing retro nod back to the muscle car era! The owner of a local Dodge dealership has been driving one since about the first day they were revealed to the consumers.

I saw an assortment of these new Challengers at the 2010 Cleveland auto show and the colors just grabbed my attention the minute I stopped to check them out. I have been dreaming about owning one since I saw the purple with white racing stripe model! The yellow, silver, and black were not too bad either.

With the Hemi package these cars actually run even better than they look which is a really tall order that is so hard to do! The styling is so close to the original in a number of ways that it could almost pass for a customized version at a quick glance.

What they have engineered is a really clever design that is a modernized version of a truly classic and very desirable Dodge muscle car from the height of that era. The other really neat trick they have come up with on this Challenger is that you can have it in three basic flavors, cool but slow, cool and fast, super cool and super fast!

Base model SE Challenger
The base model "SE" comes with an adequate 3.5 Liter V-6 engine that develops a modest 250 horsepower. This package still gets reasonable mileage at 17 in the city and 25 on the highway. Whether they are in stock or you have to order them this model can be had for around $23,245 MSRP. I am sure that this is the best way to go if you are on a Muscle car kick with a budget! Besides you can always drop that Hemi crate motor into her at a later date!

Middle model R/T Challenger
The middle of the road model is the R/T Challenger which is upgraded to run a very potent 5.7 Liter V-8 engine which creates a whirlwind of power at 372 hp. This power output is comparable to the power output of the 1970 440 big block Wedge engine that was in the Challenger which developed 375 hp!

This is a grand testament to the advances in technology and engineering when it comes to engine performance.
For the record the 440 cubic inch Hemi is a 7.2 Liter engine and in 1970 it was making the same hp as a 2010 motor that is 1.5 Liters smaller! The R/T Challenger gets decent fuel mileage at 16 city and 25 highway which oddly enough is only 1 mpg worse than the V-6 engine in the city and same on the highway!

SRT8 Hemi Challenger
Finally we come to the Hemi version that every enthusiast would own if we had the money. The SRT8 Hemi model has the Horsepower to prove it's lineage to the original Hemi line of Dodge power plants which have been tearing up racetracks and streets all across America for well over 40 years now.

This 6.1 Liter Hemi version calmly bangs out 425 hp, and with a thunderous roar it puts the rubber to the road in a fabulously impressive display of technology and nostalgia. You can get to the store in quite a hurry in this little beast! Once again thanks to technology you can expect 14 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway which is not really too bad for a heavy muscle car.

For the reasonable price of $41,230 you could be cruising home in style, but you better hurry because I was told at Junction Auto, the local Dodge Dealer that they are only making 5500 of these SRT8 Hemi models this year!

I think that Dodge has really struck a nerve with this particular model, and really wish they would roll out some other retro models that were really awesome back in the muscle car heyday of 1970. Hey Chrysler how about a 2011 Dodge Demon? Many of us enthusiasts think that model would really rock.

Or what if they actually made a true to it's heritage 2-door Dodge Charger, maybe make it a fastback like the incredible looking 1966 Charger! Heck at this point they could make a killing by making a retro Dodge Dart, and selling it in the SE, R/T and SRT8 Hemi flavors!

Thanks for reading, and please go ahead and let me know your impression of these 2010 Challengers!